Sunday, September 16, 2012

The City by Gaslight

Weird Adventures presents the City and it’s world in the year 5888, an era of automobiles, machine guns, and jazz. Of course, that’s not the only age when there’s adventure to be had:Roughly a hundred years ago, alchemical gaslamps began to appear in the streets of the City. For about forty years, their flickering lights held sway--but banishing the night didn’t always banish the darkness. The little wars in the South and West created battle-hardened veterans and returned them to the streets of the City ,where times were hard and opportunities few. Political corruption was the order of the day. Immigrants streamed from all over the world to be crammed into the most crowded slums in existence where disease and crime were rampant. And then, of course, there were the monsters.Foes: Serial killer thaumaturgists, street gangs, corrupt politicians and their cronies, mad inventors. Media Inspirations: Film/TV: Copper, Gangs of New York, Sherlock Holmes, Vidocq, The Wild Wild West; Books: The Alienist, The Dante Club, The Devil in the White City, the John Silence stories, the Carnacki Ghost-Finder stories; Comic Books: Batman: Gotham by Gaslight, From Hell (the movie, too), League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Weird Western Tales (2001).Miscellaneous Inspirations: Jack the Ripper, Spring-Heeled Jack, Spiritualism,Steampunk.

I love the digressions in space when you take in landscapes beyond the City, but this definitely works too, digressions in time. Maybe some kind of four-dimensional mapping process is possible for the companion, with the World presented over time, possibly through individual narratives and part-visual.

I'm a huge fan of this kind of setting, and if you haven't come across it yet, you should check out the Unhallowed Metropolis game. It should give you a few ideas, plus has it's own list of sources of inspiration that will save me popping it all on here.

@Paul - I haven't checked UM out yet, but I've heard good things and intend too. There are certainly a lot of other Victorian-era-esque sources. I was trying to limit myself mostly to ones with the feel of an American city of that era (though I made a few big name concessions, obviously).

Just getting caught up on my FtSS oosts and yes, this would be awesome. Gangs of New York + Weird Adventures = Much Much Awesome. Also, thanks for the Copper recommendation. Hadn't heard of that before but I totally want to check it out.